The Garden

Deer Bear, Acrylic on Supersculpey and Papier Mâché, Oct 2014

List of chapters in 2014 “A walk on the dark side”:
Jan – Dark Night, Feb 2014 – The Tunnel, Mar 2014 – The Invitation, Apr 2014 – Underground Palace, May 2014 – Foxy Gentleman, Jun 2014 – Crystal Lizard, Jul 2014 – Three Little Mice, Aug 2014 – Mr. Mad, Sep 2014 – Chess Game, Oct 2014 – Lost Children, Nov 2014 – The Garden

The garden

I woke up from a long nap, it felt warm and bright, the cool wind was touching my body under the sun. I realised I was naked. It felt like a warm Sunday afternoon, there was some water flowing next to me, and I could hear birds singing in the background. I felt like I belong to earth at that moment, I had to try so hard to finally get up and cover myself with my long hair.

The garden was beautiful. Willow trees were flirting with the surface of the water, pink and purple daisies were scattered all around. I could see some duck like creatures playing in the water. The air was fragranced with a mild floral scent. Something made a noise a few meters away, and I could see a man walking towards me.

I was nervous at first, not sure where to hide myself, but shortly after, I could see him clearly, the figure started to look familiar. He was the wall, except his body was no longer covered in the texture of the earth. He was human. I could see his beautiful hazel eyes behind his bright coloured flesh. His boyish face coordinated with his narrow and tall body perfectly. As he walked closer, I could see his thin lips in between his rose cheeks. He looked so different but familiar, especially the way he walked.

He seemd to be naked too, but he didn’t make a big deal of it. As if no one had ever worn clothes before. He walked straight towards me, and looked at me with a friendly smile.

“Did you have a good nap, sleepy head?” He said, standing in front of me.
I stood up, looking into his eyes, I said, “It was good until I realised I’m in the middle of a garden, naked.”

He smiled again, not paying attention at my body at all. He glanced into my eyes, lifted his right hand, and ran his fingers through my hair from the left side of my face. We stood there for quite a while just like that.

It felt like time stopped right there. It felt like a brief moment for me, but we must have spent a whole afternoon looking into each others’ soul. There was no tension, no urgency to carry on with our lives. I didn’t even bother to ask him how to get home. I just enjoyed being there, and I could forget everything ever happened and stop worrying about what’s going to happen. It was a magical moment. We were completely honest to each other, no hiding, no words, no mistake.

And that was when it all ended. It was time to wake up to reality. I was simply dreaming. I could hear his voice in the background. “We have to go now, we can’t stay here anymore.” He said.

I could barely move my body, as if I was physically trapped within my own dream. Finally, I struggled to open my eyes, slowly learning how to move with my body, and I was ready.

I tried to gather my thoughts on what had happened before I got to this place. I remembered that I crawled into a little tent on the bed, while he was telling me about his story, how he fell in love with the Winter Queen, and that she locked his heart away in a small golden chamber, where he couldn’t possibly enter because of the curse.

“I’m sorry to wake you but the blood bats are coming soon.” The wall said. “And you wouldn’t want to be in the same room with them.” The word “blood bat” sounded scary enough, so I didn’t ask any more questions, and I was ready to go. “Where are they coming from?”

“They are going to come out of that opening on the roof. Early every morning they do that, and they will suck the blood out of anything that moves.” The wall held my hand. “Are you ready to run? The path might be a little rough.”

“What choice do I have?” I lifted my shoulder and began to run with him towards a corner of the room that seemd to have a large crack into the darkness.

I could barely fit my body into the crack, and it was certainly rough inside.

The wall said, “Just keep walking that way, and you will end up in another room. You will be safe there.”
“Aren’t you coming with me?”
“No I think it’s better if I stay here and block the bats.”

I could hardly keeping myself away from the rough texture of the wall while trying to move forward. I might have cut my arms and legs in the process of moving. But I didn’t stop. As he closed off the entrance behind me, the place suddenly became pitch black. I could only feel my way forward from there, while listening to the bats flying away from me.

I continued walking for about 20 mins, I tried to focus on moving forward, but I couldn’t help but stop to think about what just happened. I wondered if the Winter Queen was testing me, and whether I could help the wall to get his heart back. At least I was glad to have made a friend who could really help me in this place.

I saw reflections of water starting to appear at the other end, by then I was really tired. I could feel wounds all over my limbs, burning as the wall had scratched me again and again.

The sound of water was getting louder and louder, and I could see that at the end of the path, there was a pond. In the middle of the pond, was the huge head of a child, half emerged from the water, with her eyes closed.

She looked just like me, when I was 4 years old.